If you’re a legal permanent resident and have had your green card for 5 years (3 years if you are married to a US citizen) you may be eligible to apply for citizenship. Come to our Free Citizenship Clinic at 261 Main Street in Norwich and trained lawyers and volunteers will help you fill out your application one-on-one. To register or if you have any questions or concerns, please email us at info@iascct.org or call 860-629-7758.

This past Monday the director of IASC Michael Doyle spoke at a forum that demonstrated that both the city and school system were committed to protecting all families, regardless of background or immigration status and to offer practical advice if they were to encounter immigration officers.

Prior to walking in attendees were greeted by supporters holding up heart-shaped signs of solidarity and balloons, setting the tone of community and empathy that the forum later reinforced.

Hundreds of people then packed into the C.B. Jennings Elementary School gymnasium where Superintendent Dr. Manuel Rivera stressed the importance of diversity and the school system’s commitment to providing a welcoming and safe environment for all of their students.

Attorney Michael Doyle outlined how to create an emergency plan if anything were to happen to parents or students which included gathering important documents, medical papers, memorizing important contact information, and keeping a written record.

RiseUpMystic will be hosting a rally on Thursday, March 2nd, at 7pmat the Velvet Mill in Stonington. RiseUpMystic plans on taking action and raising money to help us here at IASC.

As you all may know, Donald Trump issued an executive order banning immigrants and refugees from entering the United States. The courts have temporarily blocked Trump’s orders, but he has vowed to find other ways to target these most vulnerable of people.

RiseUpMystic plans to help us at IASC take a stand along the front lines in this fight to protect immigrants. We must rise up together in defense of immigrants everywhere, and so we ask that you come join us at this rally.

Let’s Rise Up together and do our part! Click here to check out RiseUpMystic’s website and get involved.

Days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily barring from the United States all refugees as well as citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, many local and statewide organizers are working to fight it.

On Monday, U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, condemned the executive order on the House floor. U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal asked whether the Justice Department is properly vetting Trump’s orders. U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy unveiled legislation that would block Trump’s ban.

Attorney Michael T. Doyle, who oversees the Church of the City Immigration Advocacy & Support Center in New London, said he has been losing sleep as he figures out the next steps.

The order, which went into effect Friday, put into place an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees, as well as a 120-day ban on other refugees. It also made it so all citizens of seven countries — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen — couldn’t enter the United States. Instantly, visitors and even people with green cards were detained at airports in the United States and abroad.

Doyle joined a rapid response team organized by the ACLU so he could offer services to those in limbo at Bradley International Airport who might need his help.

“We really feel that what we’re seeing is devastating to the fabric of our country. … We’ve got to speak loud and often. We have to stand fast against each unconstitutional act, each violation of civil rights” – ATTORNEY MICHAEL J. DOYLE

Doyle and his staffers also have made it known that any immigrants with questions can bring them to the advocacy and support center. And they’ve advised people from the seven specified nations to stay in the United States, even if they have green cards, which are held by permanent legal residents of the U.S.

Doyle is used to directly aiding immigrants, whether by helping them navigate visas and green cards, walking them through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program or assisting them when they’re victims of crimes including domestic violence and human trafficking.

Now he and other center employees are working to join with other similar organizations “to convert our voice into political change.”

“We really feel that what we’re seeing is devastating to the fabric of our country,” Doyle said, adding that he doesn’t want to look back decades from now and wish he hadn’t been silent.

“We’ve got to speak loud and often,” he said. “We have to stand fast against each unconstitutional act, each violation of civil rights.”

On January 28th, a federal judge granted an injunction against the immigration ban against travelers from 7 countries. The American Civil Liberties Union and multiple states have fought back against the unlawfully discriminatory ban. On February 3rd, Bob Ferguson, the Washington attorney general, claimed the Seattle decision shuts down the executive order immediately nationwide. The current injunction, if the 9th circuit in San Francisco were to allow the injunction to stand it will be limited to individuals who were previously admitted aliens and are temporarily abroad now or who wish to travel and return to the United States. Backing the attorneys general of Minnesota and Washington are several other states: New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont, the Commonwealths of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia. In addition to the states, former senior US officials, signed on to a declaration in support of a brief filed by the attorneys general of Washington state and Minnesota claiming “We view the (Executive) Order as one that ultimately undermines the national security of the United States, rather than making us safer.”

The 9th circuit court will preside over the case today, February 7th, 2017. Whichever side loses today will is predicted to take the case to the Supreme Court, which could split the vote 4-4, meaning that the decision of the 9th circuit will be upheld.